Brandon Twp.- The township board thought at the end of December they had spent pretty close to the penny on their 2010 budget of $1,767,834.37.

In fact, earlier last year, they were concerned they were going over budget and were looking for areas to cut. But the final results of a township audit report presented by Shannon Rodriguez of Layton & Richardson on Monday night shows the township didn't overspend or break even as planned. Instead, they had more than $140,000 left over.

"The excess of revenues over expenditures was $143,177," said Supervisor Kathy Thurman. "That didn't get spent in the budget year. We thought we were budgeting very tightly. The township did very well in stay ing under budget."

While Thurman was pleased with the surplus, and said during the meeting that she was "just overjoyed that on paper we're doing really good," the excess amount caused concern among several other boardmembers.

"How are we so far off budget?" asked Trustee Cheryl Gault. "What is going on with our accounting system or audit— how can we be off this far? We looked at this budget and to be off this much concerns me."

Trustee Tom Stowell agreed.

"It's great it's for the positive side, but what if it was on the negative side?" he wondered. "Would we have known we were overspending by a significant amount?"

Thurman said the board has not pinpointed how they ended up that far under budget.

"We just received our actuals from 2010 with the journal entries from the auditors and haven't had time to study them yet," she said.

Thurman added that the township actually spent $62,307 less than budgeted and more of the money came from higher than expected revenues.

The board will have a workshop prior to the next regular board meeting to study their budget and discover how they wound up $143,177 under budget.

"We certainly want to look and see what areas we need to adjust for this year and the following years," Thurman said. "If you underestimate a little in the revenues, with roughly 150 revenue line items, it adds up."